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Cosmology@home 是一个研究宇宙模型的分布式计算项目。
主页：http://www.cosmologyathome.org/
中文讨论：http://www.equn.com/forum/thread-16737-8-1.html

原文地址：
http://www.cosmologyathome.org/wandelt_letter.php

Dear friends, supporters and visitors -
亲爱的朋友、支持者以及访客：

Cosmology@Home is being developed by my group at the University of Illinois to enable participants to contribute actively to front-line research in precision cosmology by donating their CPU time.
Cosmology@Home 是由我在伊利诺斯大学的研究团队创建的分布式计算项目，旨在使参加者能够通过捐献他们电脑的空闲 CPU 时间来对精密宇宙学的前沿研究贡献一份力量。

The goal of Cosmology@Home is to search for the model that best describes our Universe and to find the range of models that agree with the available astronomical and particle physics data. In order to achieve this goal, participants in Cosmology@Home (i.e. you!) will compute the observable predictions of millions of theoretical models with different parameter combinations. We will use the results of your computations to compare all the available data with these models. In addition, the results from Cosmology@Home can help design future cosmological observations and experiments, and prepare for the analysis of future data sets, e.g. from the Planck spacecraft.
Cosmology@Home 的目标是搜索那些最能够描述我们宇宙的模型，还有就是找出符合目前已知的天文学和粒子物理学数据的可能模型的范围。为了达到这个目标， Cosmology@Home 的参加者（比如说您！）将会计算宇宙的一些理论模型与不同参数的数以亿计的组合中每个组合产生的可观察现象的预测。我们将会用你们对这些模型的计算结果来 与观察数据进行对比。另外，Cosmology@Home 的结果可以帮助我们设计未来的宇宙学观测和实验，以及准备好对未来我们能获得的数据要进行的分析，比如说将要发射的普朗克卫星获得的数据。

Each work package simulates a Universe with a particular geometry, particle content, and "physics of the beginning." It produces predictions of the observable properties of the Universe which we can then compare to:
1) the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (observed from space by the WMAP and soon the Planck spacecraft, as well as from ground based and balloon based experiments),
2) the large scale distribution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies,
3) measurements of the current expansion speed of the Universe by the Hubble space telescope,
4) the acceleration of the Universe as measured by observations of supernova explosions,
5) observations of primordial element abundances in distant gas clumps, and
6) gravitational lensing data, when it becomes available.
每个工作包里边都包含了对于一个以给定的几何、粒子组成和“起始物理定律”为初始条件的宇宙的模拟。模拟会对“这个宇宙”可观察的性质作出预测，然后我们会对这些性质跟如下的实际观察结果进行比较：
1) 宇宙微波辐射背景涨落（由在太空中的 WMAP 还有未来的普朗克卫星，还有在地面和用气球进行的测量提供数据）
2) 星系与星系群的大尺度分布
3) 由哈勃太空望远镜测量的宇宙膨胀速度
4) 通过超新星观察数据得到的宇宙膨胀加速度
5) 对于遥远的气体云的原初元素丰度的测量
6) 引力透镜数据（以后可用的话）

At this point the project is in the testing and developing phase and has not yet been launched officially. In fact there are no links to this page other than those created by people who found our test implementation looking for BOINC projects on the central server or using search engines such as Google.
现在项目正处于测试和开发阶段，还没有正式开始。实际上除了搜索引擎（比如说 Google ）和那些找到我们测试项目的人创建的链接之外，没有别的链接连到这个项目。

As we are preparing to go live publicly, we are also developing a web site that will go behind the scenes of Cosmology@Home and our research, explaining the meaning of the cosmological parameters. We will release this website at the official launch of Cosmology@Home.
由于我们正在准备向公众开放这个项目，我们现在也正在开发一个报道 Cosmology@Home 和我们研究的幕后情况和解释那些宇宙学参数意义的网站。我们会在项目公开的时候公开这个网站。

Our research group is involved in several areas of theoretical and phenomenological cosmology: the earliest instants of time, when the Universe formed, the cosmic microwave background, the cosmic dark ages, structure formation, dark matter and dark energy as well as the development and adaptation of mathematics, statistics and computation to advance the state of cosmology. We expect that we will eventually be offering several kinds of computations to participate in. All of these computations will contribute directly to forefront research projects in cosmology the Wandelt group in the Physics and Astronomy departments of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
我们的研究团队的研究范围包括了理论宇宙学和 唯象宇宙学的好几个领域：原初宇宙状态、宇宙微波辐射背景、黑暗时期、物质结构的形成、暗物质和暗能量和对数学、统计和计算在宇宙学中的发展和应用。我们 希望我们以后可以提供几种包含不同计算的工作包。所有这些计算都会直接对在我们这个在伊利诺斯大学香槟分校物理与天文系的研究团队的前沿宇宙学研究作出贡 献。

I would like to take this opportunity to say that my group and I have been floored by the level of community enthusiasm we have received as a result of even this unadvertised and bare test version of Cosmology@Home. This made us realize the potential of Cosmology@Home as a way to connect our research group with people who are enthusiastic (or at least curious!) about cosmology, astrophysics and computing in the world at large. So I think it is appropriate to set ourselves an additional goal for Cosmology@Home: beyond being an opportunity for active public participation in our research program C@H should also provide the opportunity for everyone to help understand the exciting research they are contributing to.
我希望通过这个机会表达一下，我和我的团队被参与者对于我们这个仍然有待 完善的测试项目表现出的热忱倾倒了。这让我们意识到 Cosmology@Home 有潜力作为一条将我们这个研究团队和全世界那些对于宇宙学、天体物理学和计算充满热情（至少是好奇）的人们连接起来的桥梁。所以我认为我们可以给 Cosmology@Home 一个恰当的附加任务：C@H 除了给公众一个参与我们研究的机会以外，还应该让他们了解和明白我们现在进行的激动人心的研究的内容。

As a further incentive for people to participate we are considering offering the Cosmology@Home Prize for the owner of the computer that calculated the model that best fits the data as of the 31st of December 2008. We will acknowledge you by your real name in one of our research publications (of course, only if you grant us permission to use your name - if you will not, we will pass the prize on to the contributor of the second best model and so on). Please let us know if this sounds like an attractive idea to you.
为了使更多的人参加这个项目， 我们正在考虑给在 2009 年前计算到最适合当前宇宙观察数据的模型的人授予 Cosmology@Home 奖。我们会在我们的研究论文中提到获奖者的名字（如果他/她允许的话——如果不允许的话则顺延下去）。如果您觉得这对您是一个有吸引力的想法的话请告诉我 们。

We are looking forward to your feedback on this and all other aspects of the project. Do not hesitate to contact us, either by e-mail or using the message boards related to Cosmology@Home.
我们盼望收到您对这个项目方方面面的建议和意见。不要犹豫，用电子邮件或者 Cosmology@Home 的留言板联系我们吧！

All the best,
Ben Wandelt
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign